Manipulation of plants to alter and/or improve phenotypic characteristics (such as productivity or quality) requires the expression of heterologous genes in plant tissues. Such genetic manipulation relies on the availability of a means to drive and to control gene expression as required. For example, genetic manipulation relies on the availability and use of suitable promoters which are effective in plants and which regulate gene expression so as to give the desired effect(s) in the transgenic plant.
The vascular tissue-preferential or vascular tissue-specific promoters are useful for improving the transport capacities within a plant. The number of promoters which are capable to regulate expression in vascular tissue is limited (see e.g., WO2004048595; Gittins 2003; Liu ZZ 2003; Ramos 2004).
There is, therefore, a great need in the art for the identification of novel sequences that can be used for expression of selected transgenes in economically important plants. It is thus an objective of the present invention to provide new and alternative expression cassettes for vascular tissue-preferential or vascular tissue-specific expression of transgenes in plants. The objective is solved by the present invention.